PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Time to Tidy-Up Plan Documents
A handful of new ERISA litigation cases (including McManus v. Clorox Co., N.D Cal. No. 4:23-cv-05325) are taking aim at forfeiture accounts and trying to pull them into the never-ending list of ways in which retirement plan...more
Historically, courts around the country have approached the enforceability of class action waivers and arbitration provisions in ESOP and Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) plan documents differently,...more
Most blog entries focus on new developments or recent legislation. This one’s a bit different. Its subject matter, fiduciary responsibility, is as old as ERISA itself. In today’s environment of increased litigation risks for...more
Dorman v. The Charles Schwab Corp. narrows the options of employees asserting breach of fiduciary duty in retirement plans. Breach of fiduciary duty claims that “arise out of” and “relate to” a 401(k) plan—including those...more
Synopsis: A recent decision of the federal district court for the Southern District of New York warns ERISA fiduciaries that even innocent mistakes that do not misuse plan assets or unjustly enrich the fiduciaries can cause...more
A former participant of ConAgra’s 401(k) plan filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging they failed to adhere to the definitions of compensation and permissible contribution stated in plan documents. It stems from the...more
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Munro v. University of Southern California concluded that an arbitration provision in individual employment contracts could not be used to compel...more
In a decision issued a couple of years ago, the United States Supreme Court held that a summary plan description that differed from the plan document could not be enforced as the plan document. The Court said that the summary...more
What Private Equity Funds Should Know About ERISA: Basics of ERISA Coverage - The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) imposes numerous duties on fiduciaries holding employee benefit...more